Don't overlook this wayside while driving the dunes

Terry RichardThe view of the Oregon Dunes and the Pacific Ocean from just off U.S. 101 south of Florence.

Dang those Oregon Dunes! They are wide enough to just about cut off any feeling for being near the ocean while you drive U.S. 101 for more than 40 miles between Florence and North Bend. Or, another way of looking at it, thank goodness for the Oregon Dunes, it helps save a bit of our coast line from that busy highway.

Either way, how can you glimpse the ocean while driving that stretch of road? Pull off at the Oregon Dunes Day Use Area, milepost 200.8 between Florence and Reedsport. The new name is an unfortunate bureaucratic choice recently bestowed upon it by the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. In the not so distant past, I remember it being called the Oregon Dunes Overlook, which was at least descriptive.

It costs $5 to park here, but you're most likely to use your Northwest Forest Pass that day to visit several other places in the Siuslaw National Forest that requires the pass.

Get out and walk a short way to three viewing platforms, all handicap-accessible by wooden boardwalks. This is the only place along the highway where you can get a good look at the expanse of the dunes and the breaking waves of the ocean in the distance.

You can also go for a walk in the dunes for here or, on Saturday, could learn from two national forest naturalists who were describing the plight of the snowy plover. Even if you never see one of these precious birds, it is uplifting just knowing they are able to survive the onslaught of development in such a fragile ecosystem as the Pacific's coastal dunes.